First Weekend

It all started with an acceptance letter. Since that eventful day, everything I have done has been for the transition that I am going through right now. Graduating from a school that looks quite similar to Hogwarts, I moved back home for the summer and started working as a cocktail waitress/hostess for one of the restaurants in our local country club.

Needless to say, I hated it there after my first week. Serving people who were wasteful with their food and money, and acted like they were entitled to make us lowly servers their maids, disgusted me. The only good thing about working there? The paychecks. But even that started to be a dread as the summer came to an end and all the adults who started drinking at 11:30 in the morning had to become parents again.

After my last day there, I had exactly two weeks to pack and move from “The Peach State” to the Big Apple. Doesn’t sound too bad, but add in trying to balance a social life of goodbyes and you get a pretty busy schedule. By the beginning of the last week, most of my packing had been completed and I got to focus on being with my friends and family. The hardest goodbye, honestly, was with my older brother. I had always thought that he would be the first to move out of state and I always imagined how it would be. While he did move to a town with the directions of “If you see a sign that says ‘Welcome to Alabama,’ you’ve gone too far,” he was always an hour away so it still felt like he was close. Now I’m a 14-hour drive away, and I'm hoping I'll eventually be okay with this.

I also had to say goodbye to my "little brother", my best friend, my soulmate. So, obviously, it was extremely hard to say goodbye to him. While spending my last week with him and his roommate, my amazing pseudo sorority little sister, all I wanted to do was say “screw it” and not move away, but instead we all drank almost every night and watched an obscene amount of How I Met Your Mother and K-Pop videos. Surprise celebrations and fraternity parties mixed in, it was a great way to see all of the people I love from my Alma Mater and be reminded that they are my home, my family, the ones who have truly witnessed my growth as a human being in this world, and I absolutely cannot wait to see them all again.

Until then, I have to focus on my new life here, and it hasn't been easy so far. Having been without internet till today, I'll just post what I've written down so far and let you all have a good read. :)

August 29, 2010

         Since moving in last night, my camera has stopped working, I don’t have internet and my room here at The New Yorker Hotel (part of the EHS program) was a complete mess when I moved in. There was someone else’s pillows on my bed, an orange stain underneath the bathroom sink, old milk in the refrigerator, dirt in the mirror-cabinet, food on the shelf, box of trash in the closet, dust on the floor and hair ... everywhere. After being refused some assistance on cleaning the place from the RA, I was too tired to do anything about it so I just grabbed one of my towels (since my bedsheets were no where to be found) and fell asleep on a barren mattress with the outfit I wore to the airport on - including my shoes. Let's face it, I don’t have a huge phobia of germs, but this room was nasty and I refused to step barefoot on the ground.

This morning, absolutely wanting (and in need of) a shower, I asked the same RA if I could have some help cleaning or if I could borrow whatever cleaning supplies they use. The girl looked at me like I was crazy and proceeded to say, “Umm, you can just go to K-Mart.” To make up for her lack of caring and words, I got my box of bedsheets and used the task of making my bed to calm me down.

Let it be known that I am horrible with directions. Even while using the map on my phone, I still get lost. The five minute walk it should have taken me to go from my room to K-Mart turned into a 20 minute walk because I took a wrong turn and proceeded to get lost and confused. I called my mom telling her that I may not be able to make it anywhere, and, being one who is great with directions, she helped me find the store and I got to go to K-Mart for the first time ever. While their food section didn’t have anything I could eat, I did buy $50 worth of cleaning supplies and walked back to start Operation: Clean the Fuck Out of This Room. I put on my K-Pop mix that my "little brother", Chris, gave me and cleaned for three hours. I am now barefoot in my bedroom feeling accomplished with the work I have done to this room. 

And I took a shower, which was the best reward.

August 30, 2010

       Really didn’t do much today. Woke up around noon, got frustrated about the lack of internet in my room and watched a good amount of Man vs. Food.  The highlight of my day was where I went for dinner - Lucy’s Cantina Royale. I would LOVE to work here. The waitresses wear these cute surfer mini dresses and serve the best Tex-Mex with some of the strongest margaritas I’ve had in a while. It may be the amount of tequila or it may be the 48 hours of which I’ve had nothing to eat, but that one margarita I had while waiting for my to-go order made me feeling quite alright; and thus I proceeded to walk into the hotel, and my room, with a huge grin on my face (Suck on that, EHS). Now I’m back in my room, watching I Love You, Man and eating chips and salsa that have been laced with tequila (No, really, I absolutely love this restaurant) and tacos. Hopefully in my drunken stupor, I won’t go wandering around the city and get myself lost. :) Tomorrow my mother comes into town, so expect some interesting posts. In the meantime, I’m going to make “Lucifer” my ringtone.

August 31, 2010

       Woke up kind of sick, so didn’t do much until my mom came into town. She got to see my room and was impressed with the work I’ve done on it. Then I got to see her room. My mother has a terrace that overlooks all of Chelsea - I am so FRIGGIN jealous!! I took a couple of photos, so I’ll post those later. And by “post those later,” I mean I HAVE INTERNETS!!! It took two guys to work on the modem, but it’s working and now I don’t have to use my phone for everything. :) I’ll be getting my camera checked tomorrow, although it did work once today. It stopped after I left it on for more than five minutes, but I’ll consider that progress from what happened on Saturday.

Anyway, I took my mom to Lucy’s for dinner and then we decided to walk around. We found this nice neighborhood and decided to check out the buildings to see if there were any “For Rent” signs. While going through the neighborhood, I saw that there was a room on the first floor of a really nice building. And, seeing as it had its blinds open, I started snooping around - until I got caught ... by the guy who was moving in. Luckily, he was very nice and invited us in and showed us the apartment. Turns out he and his partner are realtors and gave me their information for when I start looking for an apartment (Thank you, Baby Jesus!). Until then, he advised me to start looking for a place on the streets and not the avenues, otherwise I would be hearing sirens all the time (which is what I’m going through right now, and it is not easy to tune out). So, I guess being nosy can be alright at times. :)

I then got a much-needed call from Chris and I got to talk to him for an hour while walking around the city and grocery shopping. Afterwards, my mom and I headed back to The New Yorker and went to their bar, where we listened to fabulous opera music while drinking really strong drinks. I’ve found the place I will be going to after a hard day at school or work (which I am still looking for, ugh).

We will be exploring some more tomorrow, so I’ll keep everyone posted.